I must admit that when I received the Canon Powershot S90 for my trial, I was initially a little bit disappointed that it wasn’t, say the 1Ds MkIII, and kind of cursed myself for saying that I’d be happy to trial compacts as well. But funnily enough, within 5 minutes of playing with the S90 on Christmas Eve when I (quite fittingly!) received it, I did a complete 180 and was absolutely blown over.

As it happens, only a little while back I purchased the Powershot G11. I really wanted a near enough compact sized camera, which I could carry around in my pocket and take to music gigs etc, which would have full manual control and the capability to shoot raw. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really know that there were other options out there than the G11 (and the previous models) for what I wanted, so I didn’t really even look around for anything else. Well as it happens, the S90 has exactly the same sensor as the G11, only everything is packed into a smaller body (nearly as small as my Ixus), and the lens is faster at f2 compared to f2.8 on the G11. The question I’m asking myself now is: how did I not even know this camera existed?

Obviously being smaller in size, there are less controls on top of the S90 than the G11 (and lets be honest, it’s these controls that are like a siren call to us photographers looking for a compact). But all that is forgotten once you discover the two click-stopped direct control rings on the S90, one of which is at the base of the lens and is SO very satisfying to use – from setting the aperture to any other functions you might want to assign to it. Now, after having used the S90, I feel a little bit at loss with the G11 without the nice ring around the lens, what a silly thing to omit from that particular camera.

There is really no difference in the quality that these two cameras produce. I like to shoot wide open where ever I can, and both of these cameras allow for me to do that, but the faster lens on the S90 does make a huge difference to me. It also means that it doesn’t really matter that much that the ISO range isn’t as wide as on the G11. The only ‘negative’ on the S90 I can think of is the shorter zoom at 3.8x as opposed to 5x on the G11.

Unfortunately I don’t have very many ‘proper’ samples of photos from the S90, as for some reason the battery charger was omitted from my box – and the battery didn’t fit any of my other gazillion canon battery chargers. I did have the camera with me in Finland, and the battery lasted approximately 2 minutes outside in -16C. (So it’s safe to say the camera/battery is not really the best option for ‘extreme’ conditions).

I did manage to snap a few pictures on New Year’s Eve though. The picture below was taken nearly at midnight. It was pitch black, apart from the street lights, but the S90 didn’t really have a problem. These sort of conditions also show what a difference the ability to shoot raw on a compact makes.

In conclusion, and I REALLY hate to say this, I would recommend the sleek S90 over the bulky G11 any day (not to say that the G11 isn’t a GREAT camera – it is, I just prefer the same greatness in a smaller package). If you are looking for a properly compact sized compact camera, with full manual control and raw ability, this camera is pretty perfect. I really wish I would have known about it before I bought the G11, and am now secretly kind of hoping I could exchange the G11 for the S90… :D

Recently I was invited to attend a round table discussion with Canon UK, which was organised by Canoncamerabuzz. It was an opportunity for me and a few other professional photographers to see the whole lineup of Canon’s DSLRs (including the brand new 1D MrkIV, which started shipping this week) in the same room, and hear about some of the processes behind developing new bodies and lenses.

I didn’t really have any expectations for the evening, apart from getting to fiddle with the 1Ds MrkIII (which was very satisfying indeed – I still definitely cavort over it more than the new 1D MrkIV). What I came away with was a clearer understanding behind Canon’s decisions for their line-up and who the average end user actually is (i.e. not me). As professionals, we tend to have a bit of a skewed perspective on what the next camera models should do and what kind of features they should, or shouldn’t, possess. Add to that the fact that for someone like me, coming from a film background, it’s hard to get my head around the fact that the majority of dSLR consumers these days have never even used film, which was kind of clarified to me when I was questioning why the 1D MrkIV isn’t full frame. As it goes, the market for full frame isn’t as big as I would have though. For me, it’s the only sensible thing to do but, as product specialist Mark Burnhill from Canon UK explained, the majority of dSLR users are of an age that have always shot with a crop sensor, and that’s what they find ‘normal’. To me, that seems completely perplexing! When I started my move to digital, via an EOS 350D and 20D, I felt restricted, not only in what I saw through the viewfinder, but in the fact that I couldn’t use my lenses to their full effect. So when I finally got my hands on the 5D, and subsequently the 5D MkII which I now use, it literally felt like I could breathe normally again. Until I now heard Mark rationalise the issue for me, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why someone wouldn’t want a full frame camera.

The other interesting fact was how infinitely bigger the market is for the lower end models, the pro end of the line is practically a drop in the ocean when it comes to Canon’s dSLR sales. Obviously that is going to have an affect on what the development efforts will be concentrated on. Interesting no? Perhaps this has always been obvious to everyone else, but I’ve never really even considered all of this when scratching my head about why there are so many crop sensor models, and a dizzying amount of different lower-end models with only marginal differences, about. A shocked shiver went through the room when Mark asked us what we thought of the possibility of coloured dSLR bodies, apparently that’s the latest demand from the Japanese market. Uh huh. Give me a pink Ixus to slip into my pocket any time, but please leave that sort of gimmicks out of the ‘proper’ cameras I say!

After all these ‘revelations’, my position hasn’t really changed. Ever since I started using SLR’s in the early 90′s Canon has, and always will be, the manufacturer for me, and in my opinion their lenses are head and shoulders above the rest. And the fact that even after looking at the realities of ‘where the real money is’, they keep on developing new and exciting pro gear for us to play with is a testament to Canon’s dedication to quality picture-making.

How was that for sounding like a real Canon fan girl (which of course I am)? :D

I know, I know, I need to blog about what’s been happening on the house-hunting front, about Cornwall and all the other stuff that I haven’t had time to blog aboout. Soon, I promise. Well, perhaps not a firm promise, but at least a promise to attempt!

Turns out it was part of campaign material for Terminate the Rate, which launched today. Basically, what’s happening is that BT, 3, moneysupermarket.com, NUS, FSB, GMB and Carers UK announced their stand against high mobile termination rates (those pesky additional charges made every time you call a mobile cross-network or from a landline), and launched a campaign to get them lowered to a more reasonable level.

If you want to know more, keep an eye on the Terminate the Rate blog. Oh and if you want to make your own little beaky, you can print out the template from here.

We started off from the 3 stand, above. Pictured are our hosts Seb and Matt, with a fellow blogger, Rocktographer. Our first challenge set the pace for the day really.

We plunged head first into the, sometimes bizarre, world of all things gadgetry.

All the boys really loved the Nvidia 3D gaming and Roland V-Drums demos. The Minoru 3D webcam though, not so much. I tried it with the glasses and couldn’t really understand what the point of it was. There was also a puzzling amount of all sort of ass-jiggling equipment on show, which made for some amusing viewing at times.

Above are the most useless, and the most bizarre gadgets, that I chose for my challenge. I really couldn’t understand why anyone would want to wear an ugly thing like the Swap ‘smart watch’, which is a watch+phone+camera+mp3 player etc, etc, all in one, when you could just, you know, use your phone. LG had a similar product on their stand, called the 3G Touch Watch Phone (LG-GD910), which looked a tiny bit more attractive, but still, I would classify these as completely useless. Perhaps in the future, when all that technology can be packed into small enough space to look at least remotely appealing on your wrist, I might start warming up to the idea. What I found to be the most bizarre aspect of the show was the multiple stands for different companies selling electric cigarettes, such as the E-Lites. Just say no.

Here are some of the gadgets that managed to raise my pulse somewhat. I really liked the look of the Emtec Movie Cube S800, attractive and useful, what more could you ask for in a gadget. I gave the ‘most innovative’ title to the Wattson energy monitor (no picture of that sorry!) from DIY Kyoto, which was an absurdly sleek looking for such a ‘green’ and sensible device. Oh and also, the Sony OLED TV’s were pretty damn impressive. But what I found most sexy and desirable (as per the challenge) though, was the Vita audio system, possibly mostly for it’s absolutely beautiful design. And the dude demonstrating it for me wasn’t half bad either! :P

My second challenge was to find something that could take my photography to the next level. I must say, the camera gear on show didn’t do an awful lot for me, but then it wasn’t a camera show and not aimed at professionals. The top model there was the 5DmkII, which I already use. I did drool over the Canon PIXMA 9500 at the Warehouse Express stand though (never mind that they didn’t have the Canon PIXMA Pro9500 Mark II on show), it would be kind of great to be able to make A3 prints, but I could never find the space for such a monster! I did manage to make two purchases though, in the shape of a Gorillapod and a mini umbrella/flash bracket kit for my 580EX II.

The most dense gathering of geeks was around these pretty cool RoboSteel sculptures, which are hand-made from scrap metal auto-parts. They were pretty slick I must say, but then again, I was part of the gathering! :P

The girl in me really warmed to the different sleeves for gadgets on show. While DigiSkins had the widest selection of skins on their stand – some of them really cool designs – I for some reason preferred the smaller stand for Wrappz. Their skins seemed somehow more durable, and also they were the only ones offering software for completely customisable skins, which I think is pretty rad. I got a few samples from Wrappz and thought I’d give them out as I don’t own either of the devices they’re for. If you want to win a skin for either a Sony PSP 3000 or an iPhone 3G, comment on this entry with your preference and I’ll draw a winner sometime next weekend (unless no-one’s interested that is!).

We wrapped up the day in the Sony Super Theatre, where we got to enjoy a live show hosted by the presenters of The Gadget Show: Jason Bradbury, Suzi Perry and Jon Bentley. For the first time in my life I was a VIP, which meant I got to sit on a blue seat instead of a green one. :D Awesome. The show was good fun, with a lot of interactive games with the audience. It was a nice way to end the day.

It was a long old day (and I know I whined enough about getting up at such early hour!), and train delays meant I wasn’t home until after 9pm. But it was all good fun – I got to see a lot of toys, and got to know new interesting people. So I’d say it was well worth it!

Despite me trying everything in my power to synch the INQ with my computer, I just could not get it to work. Not sure if it was the truly craptastic sofware, my Windows Vista 64-bit, or both, but after hours of tearing my hair out I just gave up. It’s a shame really as I really wanted to love all sides of the INQ, but in order to use it as a real phone I just need to have all my contacts and calendar synched. Same goes for getting pictures and music in and out of it. No matter how many times I was told I could connect it as a portable hard drive, I could not copy anything to or from the phone. Meh.

Given all the synching problems, I’m actually quite surprised how I much I do use it though. The fact that you can be connected to people without having your whole traditional phone book on your phone, goes to show how the idea of the INQ is very much on the right track. Social media is such a powerful tool for keeping in touch these days that you almost don’t miss the traditional ways of communicating.

One thing where the people behind the INQ have seriously missed a trick though, is with the design of the phone. It’s been given this generic metallic hi-end mobile device look, not far off from my Nokia 6500s for example. However, when you pick the phones up, the difference becomes obvious. The INQ just feels so much… cheaper. Despite the metallic look, it has a plastic-y, light feel to it, instead of the feeling of a quality product. With a product that you hold in your hand it’s not enough to just ‘look’ a certain way, and with the INQ the look and the feel just don’t correlate. I’ve been using it for less than two months and already the metallic coating on the navigation button is showing signs of wear – not good.

Taking into consideration the ethos of the phone – young, forward-thinking, affordable – I have no idea why they have gone for this mock hi-end design. I think the designers should have gone completely the different direction. If the INQ came in pretty colours (and maybe also in white), reminiscent of the original mini ipods, but with a Japanese-gadgets-inspired hard plastic with rounded corners as material, I think it would be an instant hit with the younger demographic who are most likely to be interested in the INQ in the first place. Also, since they went to all the trouble of commissioning artists to create original artwork, which was used on the ‘manual’ cards (how many times will anyone look at those? Once, I bet – the first time they open the box.), why not take that idea one step further and have the artwork actually on the phone? I think all of the images would work great on the handset, either as hard plastic covers or even as changeable picture under a clear plastic cover. Now there’s a unique product that would interest just the people the INQ is aimed at…

The ultimate most annoying thing about the INQ however is something a lot more practical, or not, as the case may be – battery life. Taking into consideration the fact that I’m not even making phone calls, it’s incomprehensible to me that the battery hardly lasts a day. I charge the handset every night, and even so on some days it dies on me before the day is through. That just seems completely unacceptable to me. Also, let’s not even go into the decision to have just a usb connection for the charger and the headphones… what silliness.

Kind of annoyed that I can’t offer any more in depth reviews on the camera and music side of the phone. But for what’s it worth, even in it’s half-baked state, the INQ has proven to be a useful little part of my gadget family.

And I guess it’s gotten a few other people hooked as well since it just won GSMA’s award for Best Mobile Handset at the Global Mobile Awards 2009.

As a side note, if I was ever to be unfaithful to my baby, it would be with this gorgeous Vivienne Tam Special Edition HP Mini 1000. Just look at it, how gorgeous can this tiny beauty be!

I’m so tired that everything aches, not sure how long I’ll manage to stay up for. Doesn’t matter though. I’m treating today as the start of my Christmas holiday, even though I still have to go in on Monday. I’m thinking I will treat Monday as ‘popping up to town to have lunch with Layla’ sort of thing. Sounds much more inviting that ‘going to work’.

I’ve been playing with my INQ a lot yesterday and today, and am getting to like it more and more. Funnily, this being a mobile phone trial, I’ve actually used very few traditional phone functions, like making calls or even texting, in the past two days, since I can pretty much satisfy most of my communication needs via other methods. There are certainly a lot of things I like about the INQ, but also some niggles that could do with a bit more work in my opinion.

Last night after work I headed up to a very snazzy office in the West End (oh it was quite lovely to be back at my old stomping grounds!) to meet up with Matt from 3mobilebuzz and to find out a bit more about what’s actually involved in the mobile trial. It also gave me a chance to share the biggest gripes I’ve had with the handset so far, which Matt then forwarded to INQ/3, which is kind of cool. Not sure if my user experience is going to make any actual difference when it comes to the future INQ models, but here’s hoping.

But yeah, the things I really like about it so far:

• It’s really easy to switch between all the different networking clients, which means you can be writing on people’s walls on Facebook, having a skype or live messenger chat and checking your mail, all practially at the same time.
• The facebook client is really handy as you can write messages and update things even when outside of network coverage, it will then post everything once you are connected again.
• Skype works like a charm. On my Nokia you have to keep on connecting to skype every time you need to use it, which makes it less than ideal, but on the INQ it is actually always on and connected (as long as you have network coverage). I’ve used the skype chat a lot instead of sending text messages and really like the ease of it.
• It’s cool to be able to merge all the instances of the same person from skype, msn, facebook etc. into one contact. That way you can always see if they are online with some client and thus use the most convenient way of communicating. Can’t wait to see how easy (or difficult?) it’ll be to really get all the contacts integrated when I get the phone synched with my Outlook.
• I like the pared down simplicity of everything. It does the things you want it to do and there’s no ‘fluff’ to confuse you.

Then the negatives:

• The build of the phone feels a bit cheap and flimsy.
• There’s very little control over sounds in different clients, for example the skype incoming chat message is driving me nuts, and there doesn’t seem to be any way of turning this off.
• The facebook client is missing one crucial navigational aid from the top menu – ‘home’. At least for me this is the page I want to generally start from, but to get there you’ll have to go to a submenu menu and ‘jump to’ the homepage.
• The phone keeps buzzing (especially in the middle of the night) to inform me of some sort of event or message, but when you have a look there’s no actual way of knowing what the hell the buzz was for. Quite annoying.
• The window turns horizontal in a very random manner. Browsing some websites it’ll suddenly turn sideways at a slight flick of your wrist, but it’s impossible to actually make it do this on command. I have no idea why and when it happens, and whether it’s supposed to do it every time you turn the phone sideways.
• Why no blogger or generic blogging client?

Hmm. I guess that’s it for now. I’m still waiting for the software that will enable me to synch the phone with my calendar and address book. I also haven’t put any music on it yet so can’t comment on sound quality etc. yet.

Sometime next week there’s something a bit exciting happening regarding the trial. Will tell you more about it when it’s live.

Uhh I think I’ll have to give up now and go to bed. Hopefully will have a lot more energy tomorrow, have shedloads to do. And also, we’re having a little xmas do with Sooz before she’s off to Finland (sniff) for Christmas.

The day didn’t get much better once I got in the office. We still have no internet/server access due to problems that have now been going on for a month. The atmosphere at work is very tense as people as just so over not being able to do their work and just having to sit there and wait… it’s soul destroying. And to add insult to injury, we’re supposed to get the issue to press tomorrow. Hey ho.

There were some positive points to the day though. Since going to the INQ launch party, I was chosen to test out the new handset for a month, and I received my review copy today. It was good timing as I really could use some distraction at work, which playing with the phone provided. In this short space of time I have already grown to like it quite a lot. All the social networking tools are easy to use, and dad already managed to phone me on skype while I was on the train. :D

I think I mentioned after the launch the original artwork created for the cards that work as a manual. They’re super cute.

I’m not quite sure how I can synch the phone with my address book and calendar, something that would be vital for me if I was using the phone for real. For now it grabbed all my facebook contacts and added them into my phone book. Note sure if that was the way I wanted to go about things. :D I think I’ll have to have further play with it to figure out what’s the best way to do things. I will let you know my thoughts over the month.